Early Childhood Certification!

Those of you who have been following me over the past two years know that I've been working diligently to obtain a third teaching certification. I was already certified to teach at the Elementary level (grades K-6) and English as a Second Language (ESL). In December of 2011 I finished the coursework to obtain certification in Early Childhood Education! This is a more specialized certification that focuses on the developmental needs of children during the earlier stages of development. It is also the certification required by the state of Pennsylvania for any teacher who wishes to teach at the Pre-K, Kindergarten, First, Second, or Third grade levels. Thank you all for your support throughout this process. It was a lot of hard work, but it is well worth it!

Luv Saving Money: Doodle Roll Giveaway: Help Doodle Roll "Get on the...

Click on the link below to enter the Luv Saving Money Doodle Roll Giveaway!

Luv Saving Money: Doodle Roll Giveaway: Help Doodle Roll "Get on the...: Some of you might remember that I did a  review for Doodle Rolls back in the beginning of December. Doodle Rolls are convenient activities to take with you on the go...

What Do They Need to Know BEFORE Starting School?

Many concerned parents ask me what their child really needs to know before starting school. When deciding what to teach, your child's teacher looks to three main sources to guide their lessons. First and foremost are the state standards. Every state has learning standards for grades 3 through 12. Many states have expanded those learning standards to the realm of early childhood, which includes learning standards for Birth through Grade 3. Yes, you read that right, from Birth. The second source your teacher and school district looks at is the curriculum they will be using. Many curricula include books and activities along with the scope and sequence in which they will teach themes throughout the year. The third source is the individual child. Lessons can be altered, supplemented, or adapted to fit individual children's needs. However, the state standards guide all of the above. State standards vary slightly from state to state, but for the most part they are very similar. I will be beginning a series covering The Pennsylvania State Early Learning Standards in which I will highlight a specific state standard and give you examples of what you can do at home to help your little develop the skills needed to meet each standard successfully and be prepared for that first day of Pre-K or Kindergarten!

Language and Learning Experiences: Part II - Read to Your Child

This is Part II in my monthly series of developing your child's language and learning.

Read to Your Child

Regardless of the age of your child reading him or her is a valuable activity. I even read to my daughter while she was in the womb. Everyone's listening vocabulary is well above their speaking, reading, or writing vocabulary. Reading to your child introduces them to new words, a variety of sentence structures, and concepts that they may not be exposed to in their daily lives.

Reading books also teaches them early literacy concepts such as book handling skills: holding the book right side up, turning the pages from left to right (front to back). If you use your fingers to follow the words as you read they begin to understand that print is read from left to right across the page and that you read from the top to the bottom of the page.

You can pause as you read to talk about the pictures on each page, let them identify the things they know  by asking them "What this?" and tell them how smart they are, how proud you are of them. Identify the things they don't know by pointing to them and telling them the names, colors, or shapes of the objects. If you are reading a book about a farm and they can identify the chicken. Respond with, "Very good! That IS a chicken! What color is that chicken?" (yellow) "Yes, that is a yellow chicken."

By having simple conversations like this about what they see when you are reading to them you are helping build their vocabulary and revealing the identity new objects to them. You can also help them predict what is going to happen on each page if you talk about the picture before you read. This is fun to do even with very young infants. They'll enjoy the one-on-one time, the sound of your voice and the brightly colored pictures as much as they will enjoy learning.

Marvel's the Avengers

I was given the opportunity to share this trailer for Marvel's the Avengers and I couldn't pass it up. I realize this is not a movie recommended for Pre-Kers, but I figured I would post it for the big kid in us all that still believes in Super Heroes!  Enjoy!

I will be posting other clips for more Pre-K appropriate movies, cartoons, and the like as I am given the opportunity.

Working Out With Little Ones

As a parent you might not always have the time to hit the gym, especially if it means trying to find a baby sitter so that you can go. So, understandably we try to resort to at home workouts. There are thousands upon thousands to choose from ranging from Aerobics, Yoga, and P90X DVDs to Sports workouts via video games or even just doing your own simple routines like push-ups, sit-ups, and crunches. Even trying to find the time to get these workouts in can become challenging, especially if you have little ones at home. I try to wake up early enough to get my workouts in before my little one wakes up or, more often than not, I do them at night after she's gone to bed. However, that doesn't always go to plan either. So sometimes I end up with a miniature workout partner. Sure it changes the routine and maybe the intensity a little bit, but it's a wonderful way to spend time and bond with little ones and it can be a great way to help promote a healthy and positive interest in staying physically fit.

Keep in mind that anytime we interact with our children we are given the opportunity to make an impact on them. It's up to us to decide if we want that impact to be positive or negative. So when my toddler wonders into the living room when I'm midway through an EA Sports Active 2 workout. I don't tell her to go play in another room or tell her to get out of my way. I encourage her to do the workout with me. Any attempt she makes at trying to hold poses or run in place is encourage with cheers and high fives. By doing this I am reenforcing the fact that mommy does want her around and and that she is doing a good job at working out. This boosts both herself esteem and creates a positive experience when it comes to doing exercise. My daughter enjoys these moments so much that she has been known to come and take me by the hand and say, "Come on, Mommy! It's time for exercises!" Which is a great motivator for me as well! (Even if it is during the third quarter of the Steelers game)

It's great to involve your children in healthy habits such as physical activity and structured exercises, but just keep in mind that they are still children and their attention span might not last for a full 20-45 minute workout, and that's okay too. My Little one picks and chooses the exercises she joins in with me and for the ones that don't interest her as much she goes and plays with toys near by where I can see her. This morning as I was doing Mountain Climbers my little one crawled under my face and was looking up at me giggling and smiling while I completed the exercise! What a great way to workout! She even added to my workout by creating extra resistance for me while I did some reverse crunches, of course she didn't know that's what she was doing she just thought she was having fun sitting on mommy's belly while I did my crunches.

Imagine how different the message would be to my daughter if I made her feel unwelcome during my workout routines or if I constantly criticized how she was doing the exercises. What would her view of the importance of exercising be if when she came joyfully bounding over to me and announced "It's time for exercises!" if I would grown and tell her I'd rather finish watching the football game. What message are you sending your child in whatever it is you are doing today?

Language and Learning Experiences: Part I - Talk to Your Child

Everyone so often when I'm out with my daughter, due to her complete lack of shyness, we'll end up in a conversation with a complete stranger . It usually ends up being a store clerk or near by shopper that my daughter feels she just has to share her latest news with. Which is usually informing them of the identitiy of anything she happens to see near by, to any major event that happened in her life recently. These ususpecting people usually react with delight and enjoy talking to her, some of them even want to see just how much she knows so they'll ask her things like, "What color is..." or "What sound does that .... make?" After a few questions they usually look up to me with surprise and ask, "How old is she?" to which my daughter eagerly repsonds, "TWO!" while holding up two fingers. And I confirm and then state, "Well a little over a two and a half actually." Then they make some kind of polite comment about how smart she or how well she talks for her age, but for some reason they always seem to assume I'm a stay at home mom who works with her a lot. When they learn that I'm a Pre-K teacher they ask me for tips on working with their own children or grand children.
I must admit I never really know what to say because I'm certain they do not have time to listen to ALL the things I do with my daughter so I usually give a different tip to each person, especially if they happened to tell me a little bit about their child. I'll try to personalize my response to their child's needs, but recently I was asked for some tips by a woman who had a 16 month old. And that's as much as I new about the child. So, the advice I gave her was, just remember that everything you do is a learning activity, from baking a cake to going for a walk. Talk to her about what you are doing, what you see, the sounds you hear, how something smells, tastes, or feels. Count the number of eggs you crack in the bowl. Count the stairs you are walking up, but don't make it feel like you're teaching her. Have fun with it.
So, as I thought about my response I thought I'd share more specifically what what I mean by everything is a learning activity. Your child from the moment he or she is born WANTS to learn. From birth to Age 5 they can't get enough of it. They are fascinated by the world around them and want to know everything about it. They are trying to understand their world, make sense of it, and interact with it. They genuinely DO want to know what everything is. So the best thing you can do to help them learn is to provide them with experiences and the language (words) to understand it.
So, I've decided to create a series of posts to help identify learning opportunities for you and your child. This part one in a series of Language and Literacy Experience posts that I will be writing. I'm hoping to publish a new one every 2 weeks.
Language and Literacy Experience Part I: Talk to Your Child
Many people do not talk to their infants accept to say "goo goo" or mimic their noises back to them. Which actually does help them. When you mimic back the coos and giggles your infant makes he or she is learning the turn taking rules of conversation: First he or she says something, then it's your turn to respond and vice versa (something we seem to forget as adults) Along with learning the turn taking rules of conversation he or she is also delighting in your attention and is learning that you are interested in what he or she has to say, which helps bolster their self esteem (yes even as an infant). A parent's affect on their child's language development and learning can go far beyond that if they talk to their little ones in addition to cooing and cawing with them.
Infants give you their undivided attenion and because they are so dependent upon you as a parent you are constantly interacting with them. If you couple these interactions with words your child can begin to develop language even before they begin speaking. And there are times that your simple conversation with them may actually help sooth them and make what could be an upsetting experience into a bonding experience. So talk to them. Talk as if you are having a conversation with an older child about what you are doing, but don't be afraid to have fun or be silly either. Talk to them when you are changing them, talk about what you see when you are going for walk. When you read a story to them, point at the pictures and identify what you see. If they are too young to respond pretend that they did and give them time to experience what you are talking about. For example:
When it's time to give you infant a bath a conversation might go something like this:
"Ok sweet pea, it's time to get a bath now. first we need to take off your shirt."
(While you are removing their shirt talk about what you are doing then)
"We need to get your little are out of the sleeve. (while you pull one arm out of sleeve.) Now we need to get the other arm out. (pull the other arm out of the sleeve.) If their arms gets stuck or the shirt is a bit tight and they seem to be getting upset in a calming voice say, "it's okay, mommy/daddy has you, it'll be all better soon." Have a similar converstion about their pants, diaper, socks, etc. Then tell them, "I'm going to pick you up now and put you in the bath tub." (please make sure you test the water before putting any child in their bath. The water should feel neither hot nor cold to the touch.) When you place them in the tub say, "There doesn't that feel good! Do you like being in the water? I bet you do! (if your child does not like being in the water then you can simpathize with them, "Oh, I know you don't like being in this water water, but Mommy/Daddy is just trying to get you all nice an clean. It'll be over soon."
By talking to your child whether an infant, toddler, or preschooler, you'll be giving them vocabulary to use and they'll begin to pick up on sentence structure too. I am often surprised at some of the complex sentences or expressions that come out of my daughter's little two and a half year old mouth.
So often we get caught up in the business of the day we have become adept at repsonding to our children's body language an gestures. A child will point in the fridge while we are standing there trying to figure out what to make for dinner and we'll automatically get them a cup of milk without saying a word. This is a valuable language learning opportunity. Take the time to ask, "Do you want some milk?... then tell them " I'll get you some milk."... "Let me pour it in the cup for you."
Talking to your child is a great way to bond and help them learn about the world around them! Trying having a conversation with your little one today about whatever he or she or you are doing! :)